Trevor Holmes Plays MTGO Ep. 5: Bringing Gifts!

Hey guys! Welcome to Episode 5 of our Modern Nexus Video Series, where we pick a sweet list and run it through some matches on Magic Online. This week we have Luis Scott-Vargas’ Bringing Gifts deck, which he talked about a little while ago on the Mothership. This deck features the traditional Four-Color Gifts Ungiven shenanigans, but with Bring to Light now in the mix for even more craziness!

Will Bring to Light be enough to finally push this deck into the spotlight? Let’s find out!

Deck Tech

Round 1

Round 2

*Accidentally muted my webcam a few minutes before the end of the video. Apologies for the audio loss, gameplay still there though!

Round 3

The results were not too bad! My prior experiences with Four Color Gifts had me worried that our deck would be too clunky and awkward, and the added power that Bring to Light provided wouldn’t do much to change things. We only played three matches, but I think it’s safe to say that Bring to Light in Gifts is a game-changer. In my opinion, Bring to Light evens out our draws, making our bad draws better and our deck run smoother. The ability to effectively quadruple the number of sideboard cards we have for any matchup is incredible as well, giving Gifts an incredible post-sideboard gameplan against pretty much everyone.

I plan on playing this deck a lot more in the coming weeks, so if you have any opinions/thoughts feel free to let me know in the comments or stop by my Twitch stream at twitch.tv/Architect_Gaming! Thanks for watching and I’ll see you next week!

Trevor started playing Magic in 2011. He plays primarily online and studies Architecture at UNCC. Recent paper Magic accomplishments include a 2015 Regional PTQ win qualifying for Pro Tour: Magic Origins and a Day Two performance at GP Charlotte. He also streams weekdays at twitch.tv/Architect_Gaming! Follow him at twitter.com/7he4rchitect and architectgaming.wordpress.com!

Also, I play Gift for a while now and BtL have improve every single MU I have face since. I choose to not play this much discard MD (mb am i wrong) but I play more anti-creature (3 decay, 1 slaughter pact, a second sultai charm, 1 path) play along with the usual pulse, damnation etc.
Highly due to a strong midrange MU, I, atm, am kinda happy with my double singleton of IoK and Thoughseize.
And the last word goes to Liliana who, even if u cant reach her with BtL, still does her job and need her place in this deck ^^

I like your new serie, more since we seem to play the same deck (I went to Grixis control for Gift control with a UW control as a backup) but u really made me cry with some of your choice here XD

Something that might be helpful for anyone interested in upping their mental game is avoiding seeing a right answers/plays/etc as though it is ‘out there’. Instead, assess things, possibilities and use those to find the right answers/etc/etc. Right answers do not exist until we make them. Even one that works out despite being produced by faulty logic or whatever else really ends up being right.

The only real difference between the two approaches is that the former encourages a condition of thought that is less conducive to effective problem-solving; keeps anxiousness about outcome from clouding judgment.

A little detail that cought my attention is that eidolon of rhetoric from the probably should be something else, because i believe it shuts down bring to light, as it casts the searched spell. Not a huge deal, there are many options but it would feel so bad to spend 5 mana on a spell that doesn’t do anything…

Current metagame: 12/1 – 12/31

NOTE: Metagame % is calculated from the unweighted average of all MTGO leagues, paper T8s/T16s, and GP/PT/Open Day 2s in the date range. Data is tracked in the Top Decks page, which you can browse for more details.